1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automobile including front seats, a foldable rear seat disposed rearward of the front seats and a luggage receiving space disposed rearward of the rear seat, and more particularly to a passenger compartment sealing structure for such an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known from the official gazettes of Japanese Unexamined Patent (Kokai) Publication Nos. Hei. 8-85344 and Hei. 9-86245 that in an automobile having front seats and a rear seat, when the rear seat is folded down to a position just behind the back of the front seat backs, a large volume of luggage receiving space is created rearward of the rear seat so folded down. With a foldable rear seat like this, it is possible, as required, to deploy the rear seat so that passengers can be seated thereon or to fold it down to receive a large-sized piece of luggage, thus improving the convenience to the user of such a vehicle.
Now, in an automobile constructed in such a manner as described above, if a fixed bulkhead is provided between a passenger compartment and a luggage receiving space, the bulkhead separates a luggage receiving space created when the rear seat is folded down from the existing luggage receiving space rearward of the rear seat, and this causes a problem that the luggage receiving space so created helps in no way to contain large-sized luggage in the interior of the vehicle. Further, without any bulkhead provided between the luggage receiving space made open to the outside of the vehicle and the passenger compartment, there is caused a problem that road dust and/or rain reaches the interior of the passenger compartment, or the odor of an article received in the luggage receiving space penetrates the interior of the passenger compartment.